Students and their families from the District of Columbia's Ward 7 joined members of the Georgetown University community and D.C. officials today celebrated the expansion of a program that works to provide academic enrichment and college preparation for low-income students. 

The ceremony welcomed 50 new seventh grade participants and announced a $10 million gift from the Meyers Foundation to support the renamed Meyers Institute for College Preparation -- more than doubling the number of public school students in the District of Columbia that will now be able to take advantage of the academic enrichment and mentoring opportunities that help make college a reality for program participants. The Meyers gift allows the program to expand its proven model of academic success and college access to more than 500 public school students from the District of Columbia's Ward 7 over the next ten years.

"This program's mission is so much more than simply sending 'kids to college,'" said Dominique Cauley, an alumna of the institute and current junior majoring in history at Georgetown.  "It is about transformation of children's lives in the Ward 7 community... I am here as a testimony to that transformation." 

The 2007-2008 entering class of 7th graders marks the first of ten new classes of pre-college scholars that will enroll each year over the next decade. Until now, the program could only accommodate a new class of students every four years, with cohorts graduating in 1995, 2001 and 2005.

The Meyers Institute for College Preparation is a community outreach program that provides intensive academic, psychosocial, and family support to low-income District of Columbia public school students to empower them to graduate from high school and succeed in college. The program accepts students primarily from Ward 7, one of the more severely stressed sections of the city, where the high school graduation rate is only 38 percent and only 13 percent of adults, ages 25 years and older, have earned bachelor’s degrees. The program's pre-college scholars participate in coursework and activities on Georgetown University’s main campus every Saturday during the school year and for five weeks each summer and become involved in many ‘Capstone Activities,’ including travel abroad.

"We are deeply grateful to Daniel Meyers for this generous and important gift," said Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. "The Meyers Institute for College Preparation will allow Georgetown to strengthen our commitment to--and engagement with--the educational success of students in the District of Columbia."

"I am thankful for and very excited about the opportunity to work together with President DeGioia and Georgetown University to expand the Institute for College Preparation," said Meyers Foundation Trustee Daniel M. Meyers. "A college education is too important to leave to only the wealthiest kids. Sadly, too many students aren't getting a chance to achieve. That's an opportunity gap and it's a problem more communities and constituencies in this country have to address. That's why I'm proud to support this initiative."

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Deputy Mayor Victor Reinoso and Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander were also on hand to celebrate the institute and its students, and provided remarks. 

Since the program began in 1989, it has served more than 200 students. 98 percent of the program's alumni have graduated from high school and gone on to colleges and universities and 85 percent of the classes of 1995 and 2001 graduated from college in five years. Students from the most recent MICP graduating class are now college juniors and attend institutions including Georgetown University, Howard University, Temple University, and North Carolina A&T State University. This year's new class of middle schoolers joins current 9th and 11th graders as pre-college scholars in the program.

"The expansion of the Institute will allow us to serve more students in Ward 7," Charlene Brown-McKenzie, director of the Meyers Institute for College Preparation, said. "We are excited for the opportunity to increase our engagement with students, and our partnership with their families and our community partners in the District of Columbia."

The work of Georgetown University’s Meyers Institute for College Preparation provides strong evidence that consistent, comprehensive, long-term academic support, coupled with parental engagement, can have a significant impact on students by helping them complete high school on time and become adequately prepared to go to college and earn a degree.